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Summer Guide

College Guide

English Colonization in the New World

October 16, 2012

By Anonymous

The English were a majority of the settlers in the new world. They were split into the Northern, Southern and Middle colony. Because they were raised differently in England, the actions and feelings they expressed contrasted greatly. Economically, in their government, and with their relationship with others, they are unique.

The Chesapeake colonization was different from New England. First, in order to be able to survive in the new world the English needed to learn how to make money off the land quickly. By 1616, the Virginia Company spent more than 50,000 English pounds because they couldn’t make the land profitable. Soon, learning from John Rolfe, the colonists learned how to cultivate a hybrid tobacco plant, which was extremely popular back in the Motherland. Next, the colonists wanted to expand, but to do that, they must get land from the Native Americans. When trying to convince Powhatan to trade, his favorite daughter’s (Pocahontas) reasoning led to Powhatan trading land to the English. After Powhatan died, Opechancanough, succeeded. He didn’t like trading with the English, which is the reason of his attack. Thirdly, to survive as a group, rules and laws needed to be established and enforced. These colonists were considered radicals for having a self representative government. The House of Burgesses had the power to raise taxes and also began a tradition of government in the English colonies. These actions are unique compared to the others.

Puritans, who were persecuted from English, arrived to New England to live their new lives. When the pilgrims started out, they wanted to get away from English and also decided on a new government system. The Mayflower Compact was agreed upon and would take action once the settlers had landed. These settlers were very religious; they decided to have a government run by the church members, a theocracy. Also, the climate in New England greatly affected their economy. Colonists couldn’t farm on rocky soil, during cold winters, or during a short growing season. Since the settlers were close to water, they realized they could profit from fishing and ship building. To finish off, the puritans saw the Native Americans as lazy and wild savages. When trying to convert the Natives, the colonists built separate “praying towns” specifically made for the purpose of getting Natives to be more like the Puritans. Yet the Puritans are not cohabiting with the Natives. An attack was led by Metacom/ “King Philip” but was defeated by the colonists. The people, religions, and reasons for settling are different from the Middle colony’s.

The middle colony is the most ethnically and religiously diverse. First and foremost, the Netherland’s booming economy really gave no reason for the Dutch to go to America. Because there is no push-factor, land was the only pull factor/reason. Besides land, the Dutch mainly wanted to trade with the Native Americans. To follow, important people of different ethnics affected the Middle colony. All traveling with their family, are the Dutch, Swedes, Finns, Germans, and Scots. All of these different types of people let them learn to be tolerant. Finally, so many different religions could have been found in the Middle Colony. Religions ranged from Quakers, Anglicans, Jewish and Puritan, none were of the majority. This religious mix violated traditional beliefs. The Middle colony is definitely unique and accepting. The English colony men had to adapt to trading with others who aren’t English. In their new lives their governments were drastically different from the motherland’s parliamentary monarch. Since they were on their own, the colony’s economy had to be great or else they wouldn’t survive. The Northern and Southern colonies had a bit of a feud while the Middle colonies were tolerant and peaceful.

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